The Language of Silence
by Glass Wings
Summary: By Catherine Ace and Chronic Sarcasm. Set during the book. The Shepard gang and our beloved greasers find a new language in the form of a deaf girl, her family, and her surrogate elder brother. What can the future hold now?


Disclaimer: Characters you recognize from the book or movie solely belong to SE Hinton. We are making no profit from this, it's purely for fun. We do own however; Eric, Dana, Elizabeth, Roz, Cheryl and Dana's parents and anyone else you don't recognize.

Eric's POV

I squashed the cigarette under my worn-out boots against the dirty floor. Blowing the last puff of smoke through my nostrils I examined the scribbles of graffiti done on the walls of the Dingo. I lit another cigarette and looked impatiently at my watch. It had been half past eleven for the past few hours. Tapping it several times, I sighed.

"Great," I muttered. I closed my eyes and blew out some smoke rings, enjoying the silence while I could... I thought about wandering off to find a pay phone, but I could have missed her. I wondered if most guys worried about a girl who wasn't their sister or girlfriend.

"Fuck!" I opened my eyes and glanced sideward. Tim Shepard was standing over his car kicking what seemed like flat tires. "Who the hell slashed my tires!" I remembered a towheaded boy leaning over the car earlier, I didn't know it was Tim's car, not that I woulda done anything anyway. I had lost my switchblade a while back either that or my Mom hid it again. That woman, when she wasn't working at the damn bar she was poking through our things. You had to love her, no matter how protective she got.

"Eric!"

"What?" I muttered opening one eye at Tim Shepard. His blue eyes had darkened, which meant only one thing, he was on the war path. Behind him stood five lean and hard guys, technically I was part of Tim's outfit, though I hardly ever hung with them. Even breaking into stores and jumping rich kids every day got tedious.

"You haven't moved since we got here, did you see who did it?" He leaned forward fiercely making the scar on his face shrink.

"Yeah, some towheaded grease with blond hair," I yawned. His eyes blazed with fury.

"White blond hair and brown leather jacket?"

"Yeah," I muttered.

"Winston! That son of a..." He trailed off swearing himself blue. I wasn't really listening because I could see Dana walking up the street. I mentally sighed with relief. "You coming with us? We're gonna beat his god damn head in." I paused then shook my head. Curly who had been standing behind all this time quietly finally piped up. It was hard for Curly Shepard to keep his mouth shut and his pants on... But I guess that went with all teenage guys.

"Why not? You got plans with a girl? Is she blond?"

"Yeah," I replied," and no, she's a brunette." Dana walked past Curly and right behind me. She didn't like Curly and was wary of Tim. Curly looked at her confused and then slowly turned back to me. Dana wasn't exactly stunning or gorgeous. Her auburn hair was always messy and tied up into an even messier French plait. Her blue eyes contrasted against her heavily freckled face. Like I said, she wasn't exactly Scarlet O'Hara.

"Hey babe," Curly said anyway. "Wanna see what's hanging?" Dana just blinked and stared at him. Curly sighed, "Are we shy?" He leaned closer, "I don't bite..." He flashed a smile. She continued staring at him. You could see him getting irritated, "What are you deaf?" She finally turned to me and moved her fingers against her palms.

"She says, yes she is," I replied, "and even of she wasn't she'd ignore you."

"If she's deaf, how'd she know what I said?" He growled.

"She can lip read," I yawned, "C'mon Dana, happy hunting." I called after Tim. He cursed generally and stalked off in the opposite direction with the boys following on right behind him. I stared at down at my cigarette where most of it had burned up, leaving long charred embers. I tapped her shoulder, she turned to me and I said, "What do you wanna do?"

"Umm," She shrugged and moved her fingers. "Movies?"

"Sure," I replied. A smile lit up her angular face and she nodded rapidly before seizing my arm as though I were her public transport system. When in fact, I was. I'd known her for years and Dana hadn't changed very much. For years she had been the rail-thin, bright eyed girl she was now. I was woken out of my thoughts when she tugged on my sleeve and angrily motioned to the dying cigarette, setting her jaw in the 'irate' position. She'd always hated my smoking.

"Dana, we've been over this," I told her and she shook her head firmly, whipping loose strands of hair about wildly.

"You shouldn't smoke," she signed and then crossed her arms in the final word. I couldn't help but utter a soft chuckle. There was no not laughing at that face, with its pouting lower lip, defiant jaw, and angry eyes set into a sea of freckles. Laughing only made the lip stick out more and she huffed before tugging me towards the entrance of the movies.

Inside it was crowded with people and housed all of the familiar movie smells of candy and popcorn, leather and a bouquet of perfumes and colognes. Everywhere it was like oil and water except with Greasers and Socs. And there was much more water than oil. Dana was still clutching my arm and looking around, taking in the voiceless faces. I let her wander about as she pleased while I saved us a spot in line. I was the only one that would be ordering anyway, so she had no need to stand there. She usually took it upon herself to find us a seat.

I had my arms loaded with snacks when I started to head for where we were going to sit when I saw her, looking into the packed theater and one slick blonde-haired Greaser coming up behind her. I had always done my best to keep Dana away from Dally. He was dangerous, and although I trusted her, I knew Dally could be too smart-- or too strong for her to handle.

Dana's POV

I didn't hear Dally coming up behind me, and I couldn't pick out the vibrations on the floor either, until he was right behind me. The chest touching my back and the sudden smell of alcohol and smoke and leather were enough to make me turn around. I wasn't scared of this new presence, but curious. He had apparently said something to me because his lips had just finished moving as I looked up. I looked blankly at him, hoping he'd repeat what he'd said. Impatiently he leaned down into my face and I pulled away a little. I don't like people in my face.

Before I knew what happened he was yanked back and confronted by Eric. I knew that look on his face and if something wasn't done quick, there'd be a fight. And I wanted to go see a movie, preferably with an undamaged Eric.

Eric's POV

I seized Dally by the jacket collar and yanked him away from Dana, who shrank back and stared simply at both of us.

"Dallas Winston, you'd better stay away from her," I growled as he shook me off.

"What the hell's wrong with you, Ross? I wasn't hurtin' nothin'," Dally replied. Dana rushed up and stood between us, one hand clutching each of our sleeves. "What's wrong with her?" he asked, tugging his arm out of her grip.

"She's deaf," I explained tiredly. "She doesn't know what's going on." She read my lips and looked over at Dally, then back at me and signed 'Don't be mad with him. He wasn't hurting me.' I sighed and shook my head.

"What'd she say?"

"She said you were an asshole." I took Dana by the hand, gathered our food up off the trashcan lid, and led her into the aisle before Dally had a chance to say something else. Once seated Dana tugged on my arm and signed 'You shouldn't be such an asshole yourself.' I grunted and looked at the screen, flickering to life as Dana rested her head on my shoulder and began to munch on her popcorn.

I saw Dally, along with a smaller, dark haired boy that was more whelp than kid, and another dark haired, younger boy I recognized to be Ponyboy Curtis. Dana was watching them too, especially Dally. He looked over at her, grinning, and she offered him a cryptic smile before turning back to the movie.

- - -


End file.
